Etienne van de Walle Prize

Etienne van de Walle Prize for Best Graduate Student Paper in Demography

The Etienne van de Walle Prize is awarded biennially for the best paper in demography written by a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. The prize honors a man of intense intellectual curiosity whose research covered a broad sweep of human experience. He spent most of his career at the University of Pennsylvania and taught many hundreds of graduate students to ask penetrating questions, to be skeptical about the quality of data and evidence used to answer these questions, and to recognize the centrality of demographic processes in social life. Papers will be judged on the basis both of their technical competence and of the breadth and importance of their subject matter. This award honors the memory of Etienne van de Walle, a world-renowned Penn demographer who was tireless in his support of graduate training and research.

Professor van de Walle was born in Belgium and educated at the University of Louvain, where he received a doctorate in lawin 1956, a M.A. in economics in 1957, and a Ph.D. in demography in 1973. Before coming to Penn, he was a field researcher in Central Africa. He left Africa in 1961 and moved to Princeton, New Jersey, where he spent a decade as a researcher at the Office of Population Research, at Princeton University. He was aco-author, with William Brass and others, in 1968, of The Demography of Tropical Africa, a path-breaking book on a topic about which little was known at the time. So too is The Female Population of France in the Nineteenth Century, which he published in 1974.

Professor van de Walle came to Penn in 1972 as professor of sociology where he spent his academic career, as a mainstay of the Population Studies Center, which he directed from 1976 to 1982. He was for many years chair of the graduate group in demography. He was elected First Vice-President of the Population Association of America in 1988 and, in 1992, was elected President.

“Although Professor van de Walle left Africa in 1961, the continent never really left him. He continued to do research on sub-Saharan Africa for the next 45 years. He was fascinated by changes in African families—in living patterns, in marriage customs, and in fertility. Professor van de Walle was dedicated to the training of African scholars. For 15 years he directed Penn’s African Demography Training and Research program, and was an advisor to foundations and non-governmental organizations interested in Africa’s population and the training of Africans who would be able to study the issue on their own terms,” said Professor Herbert Smith, professor of sociology and director of the Population Studies Center.

Professor van de Walle retired in 2001, but continued writing papers on the history of contraception, analyzing African census data, working with students, and editing the English-language edition of the French journal, Population.

Contributions to the Prize Fund:Contributions in support of this prize may be made by writing a check to the "Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania" and sending the check to Chair, Etienne van de Walle Prize Committee, Population Studies Center, 239 McNeil Building, University of Pennsylvania, 3718 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6298.

Next Competition: 2017

2015 competition - Submissions are Now Closed and a Winner has ben announced: This award honors the memory of Etienne van de Walle, a world-renowned Penn demographer who was tireless in his support of graduate training and research. Graduate students are invited to submit papers for the Etienne van de Walle Prize. The Prize is awarded every other year for the best paper in demography written by a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. Submissions for the 2015 prize are due on 23 November 2015. Students from any discipline may submit a paper. The prize, including a cash award, will be announced in December 2015. The winner will be asked to present the paper at the Population Studies Center colloquium on 29 February 2016. The submission, a paper or a dissertation chapter, should be equivalent to an article suitable for a demography journal, e.g., a length of approximately 30 double-spaced pages, excluding tables, figures, notes, and bibliography. The submission must be a single-authored paper. The paper must have been written since July 2013 and while the student was still in a PhD program at Penn. All submissions should be sent to Tanya Yang by 23 November 2015.

PRIZE WINNERS

2015 Winner

Diego Amador: "The Consequences of Abortion and Contraception Policies on Young Women's Reproductive Choices, Schooling and Labor Supply"